


Haunted

by nikerek



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-03-30 16:12:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3943165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikerek/pseuds/nikerek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collaborative work based on a prompt by Kwity of a futuristic floating city.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Haunted

Mei looked down upon the city that her grandfather had built.  She could still remember his husky laugh from years of smoking while he would reminisce about his greatest achievement.  “When we ran out of land in this city I took the next step in real-estate, owning space in the sky!”

                After buildings began to grow, population followed.  When scientist perfected genetically engineered food  that was no longer a problem.  Then they made the expensive purification process to turn seawater into fresh water cheap, and water was abundant and affordable.  Waste was a problem until they began to shoot it into the sun; expensive but effective. 

                Lifespans were expanding, and population was continuing to grow at alarming rates.  However, the people of China seemed relatively unconcerned.  They could afford the food, the water, the waste removal; they earned it when they became the number one superpower in the world.  She read in history books how the Americans used to live; wasteful and arrogant.  They learned their lesson when they borrowed more than they could return.

                Mei looked down from her bedroom window, watching the airships as delivered people to destinations she could only dream of.  Coming from money may seem glamorous from the outside, but Mei just felt like she was a prisoner of privilege.  Her mother and father wouldn’t let her leave the protection of the biosphere in her building.  The air outside was polluted and dark, and the biosphere filtered everything to keep the residents healthy.  Mei didn’t have to worry about diseases associated with poor air quality.  Still, she couldn’t help but think this isn’t how humans were meant to live.  She yearned to travel and see the world as it appeared in her book collections.  Still, she knew that the world didn’t exist like that anymore.

                Suddenly the bedroom felt more like a prison than home, and the sterile purified air began to suffocate Mei.  She stepped away from her window, feeling dizzy and despaired.  She wanted to see wild animals, and pick vegetables from a garden.  She wanted to feel life pulse beneath her feet as she walked barefoot through grass and gravel.  Human issues that threatened the species had been fixed, and lifespans averaged one-hundred thirty-seven years in China, and for someone that grew up in a biosphere with a advantaged life, the average was closer to one-hundred sixty.  Suddenly seventeen seemed so young, even though in a few short weeks she would be considered an adult.  Suddenly, she wasn’t sure she could live that long.

                Mei found herself pacing by the airship port when she finally regained her senses.  She chuckled to herself, when she realized her most coherent thoughts would seem so horrible to others.  But she knew in her heart, this is not how humans should live.  With no note, no warning, and no explanation, Mei slowly reached for the lock pad and entered the code to open the door to the dock.  She walked silently to the empty space her family’s airship normally filled when it was docked.

                As she climbed the railing, Mei felt her left slipper fall off and thud softly on the floor behind her.  Curious, she dangled her right foot over the edge, and allowed the slipper to fall.  After a split second, it was out of view.  She looked forward at the hundreds of airships, both large and small, floating around the city.  She knew that someone would likely video her decent, videos like these popped up on the Internet every day.  She knew she wasn’t special in her thoughts; she wasn’t unique.  Mei liked to think she was part of a community of people that longed to feel like they belonged on this planet.  That the Earth was part of them.  Harmony.  Mei turned and took one last look through the airship door into her cold home and whispered, “Goodbye.”

                As she fell through the sky, her mantra went through her head.  Harmony.

 _Me:_ The sky captured his attention from his peripheral. Takato’s gaze fell upon the object falling from the sky. As it neared the slick payment he walked every day, he froze in horror to see that it was a human falling rather than the occasional ship collision debris.

             Takato felt his body propel forward to the shadow on the ground as though he might be able to save this person from their horrific death. His arms stretched out and he prayed his years of fighting for money prepared his body for this blow. With his eyes toward the sky he tripped. The asphalt burned his body as it grated the skin from his arms and cheek. Before he could compose himself, he heard the body meet the pavement - a sound that reverberated in his mind in the next few moments. 

             He pushed himself off the ground as blood stretched toward him. He looked back to see what caused his fall on such well-kept grounds to find a ladies’ slipper. Takato limped toward the body, feeling the pain of his fall in his knees to see a young girl with bright eyes and a content grin on her face.

             ”Mei…” he spoke as his brain soaked in the features of the most powerful daughter on Earth. Others began to gather and the sound of boots were deafening as city guards stormed the scene. People began to weep for Mei Lin, their future empress. Takato felt confined as the space around Mei became tighter. Guards shouted in his direction for people to clear while her family’s medical staff descended from the biosphere, but all Takato could hear was the sound of pavement welcoming Mei’s body.

            Weeks had passed as Takato let himself fall into a depression. The video of her escape had replayed on television too often. Few recognized him from the footage, but no one seemed to understand torment. They a clumsy man who tripped over a slipper and fall inches away from the Beloved Daughter of the City as she had been dubbed. He heard laughter, crude remarks, and one woman had even slapped his face for failing.

             He chased pills with booze in an effort to numb the pain, but her face was everywhere and kept him all too sober. Tonight, he took more than he should have and the liquor was stronger. Takato faded into oblivion with footage paused and Mei’s beautiful face lighting his dank apartment.


End file.
